Hamilton Island Palm Terrace

... a very narrow winding path through the middle of the woods. One starts to think about all the poisonous animals which could lurk around, tries not look on the left as there is nothing but about 30 meters of free fall to the creek and tries to ignore the bloody heat. And hey we got approached by an animal - no idea what is was but it was noisy and fast and came towards us. Brave Jolien just made so much noise being afraid and waving ...

... out of 11 boats in a division which we were pretty happy with considering that we all hadn't sailed together for quite some time and even then it was rarely all together as a team. <br><br>A big thanks to Ben and Karen our friends who owned Piranha the boat we raced on. Without them we wouldn't have been there and it was a great 8 days, despite the lack of wind!!<br><br>

... Tag konnten wir noch den Adventure Kurs machen. Dieser berechtigt mich auch bis zu 30 Meter zu Tauchen. Ehhhhhhhhhhhh. Zwischen den Tauchgaengen sind wir dann oefters raus zum Schnorcheln. Auch einfach super schoen da wir dort gluecklicher Weise mit Schildkroeten schwimmen konnten. Auch mit dem Schnorchel sieht man eine Menge Fische. Und unser Chef Michael hat uns 3 Tage lang sehr lecker bekocht. Fruehstueck, Mittagessen, Kaffee und Abendessen. Luxus pur. Die Naechte waren schon ...

... Island was to see my cousin Jenny be married to Adrian, an Aussie from up the coast. Our first night, and first introduction to Adrians family was a BBQ at their apartment. Although the BBQ was faulty, we still had a good time and was great finally to find a bunch of Aussies who can drink... boy can they drink. Despite sleeping on the sofa bed, the apartment was absolute luxury compared to where I had been staying and, amazingly, I was happy to be sharing ...

... walk almost a half-mile to the receded shore line. I explore the cute marina before taking a late-afternoon hike up to One Tree Hill to see a most amazing sunset. I stop for some fish and chips on the way back and take a much needed nap before waking up at midnight to go out to the local night club to meet some people working on the island.

... and Fleays Wildlife Park. There are about 53 different tours to choose from, ranging from whale watching to scenic hinterland day tours. Accommodation options are plentiful, ranging from youth hostels to 5-star hotels. Since there's so much to do within a limited amount of time, choosing the right location will help. For example, the A1 Crown Towers is located right in the heart of Surfers ...

This weekend sees around 2700 "Schoolies" (teenagers who have just finish high school) hit locations like Airlie Beech. So I decided to find a wine bar where I could enjoy a nice quiet glass of bubbly (in honour off Melody and Karen - who I'm sure will be having one too back in London)... So i settled down on the balcony overlooking the Airlie Beech Strip, bubbly in one hand and with my Lonely Planet guide to New Zealand in the other to start to ...

... IvanandFiona took a day trip out to the outer reef (an hour and a half's boat trip from land) and their experience can only be likened to that of swimming in a giant scale ornate fish tank. An abundance of coral (Brain, Boulder etc..) which all looked too stunning and colourful to be real, and a plethora of fish and animals (Parrot Fish, Rays, Reef Sharks, Turtles, Giant Cod etc..). The reef was simply magical and one could easily have spent hours, even days just floating about ...

... and only getting better next we head up to Cairns which is probably in the 20-25's which will be great. I think we will be missing stinger season and hopefully we can swim or snorkelin mroe reefs. Unfortunatly most of the beaches in cairns are mu, but since we are a ways north at trinity beach maybe it will be sand. See you all soon.

... stepped in it, it ******. Later on we docked at a deserted beach nearby, where we and the rest of the tourists on the boat got off the boat and did some snorkeling. As I was saying with the sand, when we were heading towards the deserted beach, I got to a shallow bit of it where as soon as I disturbed the sand beneath me, a rush of hundreds of bubbles came up from the sand. Most of the time we spent sunbathing on the beach.